Bad Habits
by Bingo the Cat
Summary: Tails and Cream catch Bingo smoking after a rather horrible dressing-down from Silver's father, up at the Hedgehog Castle in the Highlands. One-shot, Bingo/Tails/Cream friendship bonding fic.


**A/N:** This is based off of the scene in the _Downton Abbey_ Christmas Special of 2012, when Bates and Anna discovered Rose smoking and crying after her mother made some harsh comments about her before dinner, on the Crawleys' first evening at Duneagle Castle. So, yah… Here goes!

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**Bad Habits**

"It never really gets dark here, does it?"

Tails looked down at Cream, smiling as they walked along the long-since dry moat surrounding the Hedgehog Castle in the Highlands. "Not like it does, back down south, no." He slid his large fingers around her smaller, daintier ones, and turned to face her, smiling. Raising his other hand, he cupped her cheek. "Let's take a picnic out tomorrow, with Shane and Lucy. They'll be gone for the day." Cream smiled at the idea, knowing exactly who Tails meant by "they" – their Majesties, the Kings and Queens – King Ninan and Queen Rowan, of Emerald; King Stefan and Queen Starlet, of Wysteria; and King Silver and Queen Blaze, of the united Emerald and Wysteria – Emeria. They were to depart, along with Princesses Cassy and Cara and Prince Caden, as well as Blaze's twin brother, Ember, and her eldest brother Bingo, to go out into the wilderness, tomorrow morning. The men were going stalking, and the women were taking a picnic out into the glens. She tightened her fingers around her husband's.

"Let's."

A quiet sob drew them from their musings of a picnic with their son and daughter, and they witnessed Bingo come out from behind the stone pillars holding up the bridge into the castle. He had a cigarette clutched in between his fore- and middle- fingers on his right hand, which shakily drew it up to his mouth. He took a long and – quite frankly – rather unhealthy drag on it before Tails spoke up with concern.

"Milord?"

Bingo turned around to face them, his orange eyes widening slightly as he saw the pair standing there. "Oh…" His other hand, hastily bandaged from the injuries he had sustained whilst protecting his baby sister from Nazo (who was – at long last – dead).

Cream took sympathy on him. "Is everything alright, milord?"

Bingo attempted a shaky smile. "It will be… if you don't tell my father-in-law that you saw me smoking, that is," he added, snorting bitterly. Tails reached into his waistcoat pocket, and drew out a small, slim tin, full of mints. The two-tailed fox opened it, and held it out to the "would-have-been" king.

"Would you like a peppermint, milord?"

Bingo looked down at the tin, then back up at Tails. He gave the couple a true smile that time. "I better had, thank you…" He picked one out of the tin, and popped it into his mouth. He dropped his cigarette onto the gravel, and ground it down into the stones with the toe of his smart, black slip-on, slightly-heeled shoes. He reached up to wipe at his eyes. "Ohh… sorry. It's just, I'm feeling so terribly, terribly blue, and Silver's father has been uncommonly impossible this evening."

Tails smiled back at the elder cat reassuringly. "My whole childhood would seem impossible to you, milord." Bingo raised an eyebrow at that, smiling back as if to say _Would I?_ "But I survived, and so will you."

"Bingo?"

Bingo eyes widened again, and he hushed the pair quietly. He glanced up as his sister's voice carried over the glens surrounding the castle.

"Bingo, who're you talking to? Come inside, everyone's in the drawing room." There was a quiet pause. "Bingo… have you been smoking?"

Bingo cursed to himself. He stepped around the pillar, before looking back at Tails and Cream and smiling again. "…Thanks for the mint."

Tails and Cream watched him go around the corner of the dried-out moat, and walked back the other way, back towards the servants' entrance, still clasping hands and smiling at the thought of the picnic that was to come the next day.

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**A/N:** So… I hope I haven't mutilated the Tails/Cream ship… *bricked*


End file.
